Talk:Nidalee/@comment-7460908-20140907115642/@comment-7460908-20140908154922
There's nothing wrong with having Cougar form at level one, imo. Jayce and Elise can transform at level 1, Nidalee shouldn't be any different. As long as we're comparing shape-shifters, Gnar can also transform from ranged form to melee at level 1, albeit not at will like the aforementioned. I'll bring up Shyvana to keep with the theme, but she's not a proper shapeshifter- her ult doesn't give her different abilties, it just augments her current ones. Akali really isn't the best example to be comparing Nid's ult to. Pounce has been working with CDR for years, it's a little late to complain about it now. Static CDs on abilities are normally fairly stupid anyway, and it's not like Pounce is a prime candidate for it- it's a vanilla dash, there are similar skills far stronger than it with appropriate CDs. Having it reset is stupid, imo, but that's about all that Pounce has going for it now- it's balanced- if not underpowered- without the CD reset. Level 6 Nidalee pre-rework was also substantially stronger than live level 6- her bases and CDs on all of her abilities as well as a few (if not all) of her ratios were better so both her burst and her "sustained" damage was a lot higher. If you think people could survive a level 6 Nidalee, you must not have seen a lot of toplane Nids before her rework. Her level 6 power spike was just as high as Akali or Corki's. Honestly, the Hunt mechanic is probably the worst thing to come out of this rework, which is ironic, because it's what the rework was built around. Rather than just make both forms capable of functioning on their own, they gutted both forms, shifted all of the power and "synergy" into the Hunt mechanic, which sucks because it pretty much forces you to utilize the same rotation on a target every time (Spear/Trap -> Pounce -> E -> Q -> Pounce away). Why can't Cougar Form skills apply a mark that augments Human Form abilities? Hunters are supposed to be about adapting on the fly, and the closest they've gotten to that on Nidalee are Pounce/Aspect's CD resets, which just shouldn't even be there in the first place. Each skill should feel impactful and powerful on its own, and how is that evident here? The (gutted) long-range nuke? The (equally gutted) heal-steroid? The short-range dash, the melee-ranged vanilla AoE? No. It's the Hunt. It pigeon-holes her entire kit into a champion that might as well be an alternate version of Diana. Energy costs in Cougar Form would allow her some breathing room versus the mana costs her Human Form harbor while still maintaining that Nidalee players pay attention to their resource and don't screw themselves over by mindlessly spamming their abilities like other manaless champs can- with proper CDs and energy refund mechanics, Cougar Form can be properly gated to allow for more power shifted into her skills- without any silly CD resets or "Hunt" mechanics.